Diving apparatus



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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

GEORGE WILLIAMSON, OF BROOKLYN. NE\V YORK.

DIVING APPARATUS.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 18,260, dated September 22, 185'?.

To all 'whom t may concern Be it known that I, GEORGE WILLIAMSON, ofBrooklyn, Kings county, State of New York, have invented certain new anduseful Improvements in Nautili or Diving Apparatus, and I do herebydeclare that the following is a full, clear, and exact descriptionthereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making partof this specification, in which- Figure l is a plan of the nautilus withmy improvements added thereto; Fig. 2, a vertical section; and Fig. 3 aninverted plan of the index and its connections, to indicate the amountof buoyant power derived from the float.

The same letters indicate like parts in all the figures.

It is not deemed necessary to describe and represent all the appendagesof a nautilus, as they are well known to all persons skilled in thisbranch of the arts.

In the accompanying drawings a represents the outer shell of the wellknown nautilus, Z) the roof, c the floor with its hinged hatchway cl forgiving access through the bottom, and e the movable hatchway or cover toclose up the man-hole at top. The inside is divided by suitablepartitions into three compartments, viz., f the working chamber, and g,g the floating chambers, one on each side. The manner in whichcompressed air is to be supplied to, or dis.

lnecessary to describe, as they are well known. It is sufficient to saythat, by suitable and well known means, the working chamber is to besupplied with air, compressed under a pressure to correspond with thepressure of the column of the surrounding water at any determined depth,and that the floating chambers are supplied with compressed air or wateras it is desired to sink or rise.

As the nautilus has heretofore been constructed it has been found verydifficult to operate it in rising or sinking, and particularly whenapplied to raising weights, and also in moving from place to place inthe progress of the work to be executed. As

water is not compressible to any practical extent its density does notmaterially vary at different depths, so that when sufficient buoyancy isgiven to the nautilus for the purpose of rising, after starting, it goeson moving upward with accelerated velocity which in some instancesbecomes dangerous, and so with reference to sinking. The mere change ofweight by one of the operatives stepping out at bottom through thehatchway would give to the apparatus sufficient buoyant power to carryit up with considerable velocity, and often with such velocity as toleave the operative at the bottom. These difiiculties have been partlyobviated by the use of anchors connecting the nautilus with the bottomthrough the hatchway; but the presence of the connections through thehatchway inconveniences the maneuvers of the operatives, and the use ofsuch anchors renders it extremely inconvenient to move the nautiluslaterally during the progress of the work, and as it is often importantto operate between the surface and the bottom, the use of anchors insuch cases has been found objectionable. Another difficulty which hasbeen experienced in practice arises from the action of the compressedair in the working chamber when the bot-tom hatchway is open. As thenautilus rises ,the

pressure of the incumbent column of water decreases, and hence thecompressed air in the working chamber expands in the same ratio, andescapes through the hatchway at bottom; and in escaping the airdisplaces the water below the bottom of the nautilus in a segment of asphere, as indicated by the dotted line in Fig. 2, the convexityincreasing as the pressure of the column of vwater decreases. The waterthus displaced just under the bottom of the nautilus increases theupward tendency or buoyant power to an extent which is often dangerousto the operatives and to the apparatus itself, and it will be seen thatin sinking, with the hatchway open, the reverse of this effect -willtake place, for the increasing pressure of the incumbent column ofwater, beyond the pressure of the air in the working chamber at the timeof starting, will cause the water to enter through the hatchway into theworking chamber to establish an equilibrium, thereby increasing thedownward tendency or sinking power to such an extent as to cause thenautilus to strike the bottom with violence.

The object of my invention is to avoid the evils above pointed out, andto render the apparatus readily controllable by the operatives within;and my said invention consists, first, making channel ways L, zv, or airpassages in the thickness of the bottom, or between the bottom surface iof the nautilus and the floor c of the working chamber, and extendingfrom the opening or hatchway to receive the expanding air, and openingoutward at the sides for escape, preferring to incline them slightlyupward to facilitate the escape of the air, as represented at F ig. 2.In this way as soon as the pressure of the air in the working chamberexceeds the pressure of the column of water to force the water below theupper edge of the channel ways 7L, h the air will escape through themuntil the required equilibrium is restored, so that the buoyancy of theapparatus cannot be increased in rising by the expansion of the air inthe working chamber. And my said invention consists, secondly, incombining with the nautilus a buoy, or lioat, connected therewith by arope, or its equivalent, and mechanism for working the same from theinside of the nautilus, so as to regulate the immersion of the float orbuoy and thereby cause the nautilus to be more or less suspended theretoat any depth required, and to be free to move from place to place in ahorizontal plane, and also to leave the hatchway unencumbered, and admitof the operatives getting out through the bottom hatchway when requiredwithout the danger o'f the nautilus rising to the surface.

' The float or buoy 7c may be of any suitable construction and size togive the required floating capacity. To the bottom of this is attached achain, cord, or rope Z which passes down around a pulley m mounted inthe cap e of the man-hole at top, and thence it passes to, and around, acapstan cylinder 0 mounted in suitable brackets on the top. The arbor ofthe capstan cylinder carries a Worm wheel p, the cogs of which areengaged by the thread of a screw or worm g on the outer end of an arborr which passes through a Vstuffing box s in the top of the nautilus; andthe inner end of the said arbor carries a crank handle t by which theoperatives can wind up or let out the rope l from inside, and therebyregulate the lifting power. If the nautilus is resting on the bottom,and the capstan is turned so far that the oat will only displace its ownweight of water, the buoyancy of the float will not add anything to thelifting power of the nautilus; but if the capstan be turned to wind upthe rope the immersion of the float will be increased, thereby tendingto lift the nautilus; and this may be increased, if the float be ofsutiicient capacity, until to rise it would continue to rise until itreached the surface of the water. Besides, the use of the float in themanner speciiied, avoids all the other inconveniences pointed out aboveas being attendant on the use of anchors.

The third and last part of my invention relates to t-he method ofindicating the amount of lifting power which the {ioat is exerting onthe nautilus; and this part of my invention consists in combining abalance or scale with the capstan and float so that the scale willindicate to the operatives inside the amount of force which the nautilusis exerting on the oat to sink itl-that is to say, the lifting power ofthe float. This part of my invention I have applied by attaching aspring catch u, to the crank handle which catch, when liberated, entersone of a series of notches in the face of a wheel a fitted loosely onthe arbor r of the crank handle, so that when the catch is in either ofthe notches the said wheel will turn with the arbor and crank handle.The catch is so formed that the operative in grasping the handle to turnthe capstan liberates the catch from the wheel, and on liberating thecatch from the hand it falls in the nearest notch to re-connect theparts. This notched wheel is provided with an arm or index pointer mconnected to a spring y which is in turn attached to some part of theroof of the nautilus. The roof is marked o-if into index divisionssuitably numbered according to the tension of the spring to indicate thenumber of pounds applied to distend it.

From the foregoing it will be seen that when the nautilus is suspendedto the Hoatthe pull of the rope on the capstan will tend to turn it witha force due to the sinking power of the nautilus, and as the capstan isconnected with the index wheel by the catch on the handle, and the indexarm to the spring, the pull on the rope, due to, the sinking force, willbe exerted on the spring which alone prevents the capstan from turning,and hence the index hand will indicate the weight actually suspended tothe oat; and if that be greater than the weight of an operative he mayget out of the nautilus without danger of its rising. This indica tionis important for many other operations not necessary to enumerate.

I do not wish to be understood as limiting my claim of invention to thespecial construction specified, as my invention of irnprovements may beapplied by the substitution of equivalent means.

What I Claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent,is*

l. The employment, in combination With the nautilus, of the channel Waysfor the escape, at the sides, of the compressed air from the Workingchambers, substantially as described, the said channel Ways being madein the thickness of the bottom of the nautilus,-that is, between thefloor of the Working chamber and the outer bottom surface of thenautilus, as set forth and for the purpose specified.

2. I also claim combining the nautilus With, and suspending it to, afloat or buoy in the manner substantially as herein described, so thatthe apparatus for operating the connecting rope, or equivalent, may be20 Worked from t-he inside of the nautilus, as

described, and for the purpose specified.

3. And I also claim combining a spring balance or scale With thecombined nautilus and float, substantially as herein specified, 2'5

